Student perceptions of social justice discussions in college classrooms 

New Series, Vol. 3, No. 1

Discussing social justice issues in college classrooms can be challenging for educators, especially in the current sociopolitical climate. Moreover, not all educators are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to facilitate such discussions effectively. They may also be wary about handling disagreements among students from different cultural backgrounds, especially considering that students from historically marginalized groups are likely to face criticism and marginalization from their peers in these discussions. This study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of students’ perspectives on their teachers’ ability and effectiveness in leading classroom discussions about issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.  

This study is guided by attribution theory, which provides a framework to explain how people interpret behavior and events, especially the intent of an individual’s performance of a given behavior. Generally, individuals are more likely to attribute their own behavior as motivated by external factors and the behavior of others as motivated by internal characteristics. These attributions in turn predict emotions, motivations, and behaviors. Here, the researchers sought to understand how students’ perceptions of their instructors’ behaviors influenced their motivation, engagement, and perception of the course. Past research on students’ perceptions of instructor misbehaviors suggests that most students attribute instructors’ behaviors to internal factors, consistent with the theory’s claims, and experience reduced confidence and trust in instructors and learning in the course as a result. This study was further aided by Critical Communication Pedagogy, a dialogical pedagogical approach characterized by partnership between teachers and students and collective effort toward a fruitful learning community. Specific practices for instructors include transparency and “ungrading” that invites students to critically assess their own learning. 

A total of 423 undergraduate students in the U.S. participated in an online survey to assess their perceptions of their instructors’ cultural inclusiveness and ability to facilitate discussions about social justice topics, and the students’ perceived benefits of and comfort level with the discussions. Most were traditional students between 18-23 years old, while a smaller portion (15.5%) were between 24-39 years old. They identified as men (55.1%), women (43.9%), and nonbinary or other gender identities (1.0%) and were racialized as white (61.5%), American Indian or Native Alaskan (13.0%), Black and/or African American (10.4%), Latinx and/or Hispanic (7.3%), Asian (5.2%), Native Hawaiian and/or Pacific Islander (0.7%), and other (1.6%), while 0.3% preferred not to answer. The students were Freshmen (13.2%), Sophomores (33.1%), Juniors (18.0%), and Seniors (35.7%). Students were asked to recall and describe a specific classroom discussion of relevance and answer a series of questions about the discussion and their overall experience in the course. Items were adapted from Arnold and colleagues’ (2020) Evaluation of Inclusive Classroom Instruction survey for The Ohio State University to assess instructor cultural inclusiveness, and the remaining variables were assessed using items created by the authors for this study. 

A preliminary, exploratory analysis revealed that most of the discussions reported by participants were initiated by instructors themselves (47.3%), were relevant to course material (38.1%), initiated by another student (26.0%), initiated by a guest speaker (18.2%), were related to current events (12.5%), and other (0.9%) and that these discussions occurred in a variety of Area, Ethnic, and Multicultural Studies, Social Science, and Arts classes. A series of t-tests and Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) were used to compare average scores on the variables measured in the survey and assess the relationships of empirical interest.  

Generally, the participants in this study viewed their instructors and these discussions positively, attributing instructor competence to internal factors. However, when instructors did not perform well when facilitating these discussions, students made negative internal attributions. These attributions influence student perceptions of their instructor’s credibility, trustworthiness, and inclusivity and, in turn, their engagement and participation. For the most part, there were no significant differences between race and gender groups in their perceptions of their teachers and these discussions. However, men reported greater benefits from these discussions than women did in this study, and the greatest differences were observed based on political leaning. Specifically, Democrats reported more positive perceptions of their instructors and these discussions than Republicans did in this study. The authors also note recruitment bias as a limitation in their study. They speculated that students who chose to participate in this study were more likely to be psychologically close or compliant to their teachers and might generally feel comfortable with or positively about engaging in discussions on social justice topics, both of which may have influenced their survey responses and ultimately the findings in this investigation. 

This study offers practical guidance for instructors facilitating classroom conversations about justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Instructors should use language to encourage critical thinking and avoid biased or partisan language when possible, and focus on specific issues rather than broad ethics of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion to help bypass students’ biases. Community-engaged or service learning are also recommended as opportunities to give students tangible experiences with social justice issues from which to approach discussions. Immediate and affinity-seeking behaviors by instructors are also encouraged to establish rapport and foster connection within the classroom community and minimize negative attribution.  

Communication Currents Discussion Questions 

For additional suggestions about how to use this and other Communication Currents in the classroom, see: https://www.natcom.org/publications/communication-currents/integrating-communication-currents-classroom 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS  

Suzanne Horsley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Alabama. 

Seoyeon Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Alabama. 

Karen Lindsey is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Communications at Elon University.  

This essay, by R. E. Purtell, translates the scholarly journal article, J. S. Horsley, S. Kim, & K. Lindsey (2025). Student perceptions of social justice discussions in college classrooms, Communication Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2025.2553560   

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